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| The storm clouds as I drove south towards Chicago. |
The host family with whom I stayed the first week consisted of a husband, wife, and 12-yr-old daughter (Josemi, Bea, and Maria.) Such a dear family! They enjoyed practicing their English with me whenever possible, while also helping me improve the Spanish I spoke. It had been 8 years since I was last in Spain (to help with the 2004 English Camp) and almost that long since I had last spoken Spanish. My grandpa was right - you do lose it quickly! But conversation is about communication more than perfection. The first afternoon, Bea and I spent 3 hours before siesta conversing in Spanglish & having a great time. It was a good beginning to many conversations between me and the family members. The day itself was structured to enable maximum conversation time. During the week, Josemi would wake up to make me breakfast around 8am & talk to me in Spanish as much as I was able to do in my semi-groggy state. Around 7pm we tended to sit outside at a local bar, sipping drinks, eating aperitifs, and talking about everything from the Spanish economy and historical religious warfare to boyfriends and tween-age daughters. Then dinner began around 10/10:30, first cooked during kitchen conversations and then enjoyed on their third story balcony until after midnight. I love having conversations with people so this family was a perfect fit for me!
The English Camp is held every year in Tres Cantos, a suburb of Madrid. I know two American couples (the Wendels & Westergrens) who work there with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) denomination and a non-profit organization called "Global Ventures" that offers opportunities throughout the year for kids and their families to practice English and learn about cultures that speak English. They also attend/pastor a church there whose members support the work of Global Ventures and whose fellowship rents out the Global Ventures office space every Sunday. Our first Sunday in Tres Cantos, all the Americans and British who came to volunteer for camp attended that church fellowship. It seemed that the service was geared more towards the visitors than the regular attenders (I noticed this especially after I attended again the following week) and afterwards all the volunteers got to meet one another. We were all bright-eyed and looking forward to two weeks loving on kids.
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| Now I can be a fan too! |
We were also looking forward to the final game of the Euro Cup when Spain would play Italy to keep their title. That evening, everyone headed home to watch the game with their families, a kind of "baptism by Euro Cup" (as Tim Westergren called it later) into high intensity Spanish culture. Spain won in a crushing 4:0 defeat to Italy. Lots of people in Tres Cantos (including the youngsters of our volunteer group) celebrated by jumping in the fountain downtown. Their were horns and shouts and firecrackers long into the night. I can only imagine what Madrid must have been like! My family was relatively sedate, since they don't get into sports as much. Josemi, who is an economist, noted that "the President is happy because now no one will remember how our economy is in trouble and he´s going to raise taxes really high." (See later posts to learn more about the Spanish economy.) My comment on facebook, though, was "Not sure which was more fun: them making goals or listening to everyone shouting & making noise in the street bars & their houses." What a great experience!
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| Singing camp songs in the morning. Red = service team. Blue = monitors |
A few comments about what volunteering at camp was like. Altogether there were some 80 volunteers comprising the service and the monitors teams, although about half the service team were Spaniards (high schoolers and church members). I was a monitor, which meant I had a small group of boys or girls to specially invest in during morning passport/song times, snacks, and lunches. In the other times before lunch (at 1:30!) we would serve in one of 3 stations: lessons, crafts, or sports. I helped out in lessons every day, reprising my role from last time I was here for camp. I was more of a teaching assistant than a teacher, though, and frequently experienced tension since my teaching style is rather more collaborative than the teacher I worked under. I daily "got the opportunity" to practice respect for elders and those in authority over me. But I also got to work one-on-one with students, and I loved that part of lesson time!
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